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Federal Resources
Children's Bureau
The Children's Bureau (CB) is one of two bureaus within the Administration on Children, Youth and Families, Administration for Children and Families, of the Department of Health and Human Services. The Children's Bureau seeks to improve the safety, permanency and well-being of children through leadership, support for necessary services, and productive partnerships with states, tribes, and communities. It has the primary responsibility for administering federal programs that support state child welfare services.
Upcoming Event: November is National Adoption Month
This observance aims to increase national awareness of the need for permanent families for children and youth in the foster care system. This year’s theme, “We Never Outgrow the Need for Family—Just Ask Us,” reflects a focus on the importance of identifying permanent families for the thousands of 15- to 18-year-olds in foster care who are currently less likely to be adopted or who may age out of the system without a stable home. A new tip sheet, Talking with Older Youth About Adoption (PDF, 2 pages) provides child welfare professionals with a framework for how to talk with older youth about permanency and includes suggestions for how to make these conversations more effective.
Report: Child Maltreatment 2015
This report from the Child Welfare Information Gateway provides state-level data from the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System on reports of abuse and neglect made to child protective services (CPS) agencies, the children involved, types of maltreatment, CPS responses, child and caregiver risk factors, services, and perpetrators.
Resource: Engaging Youth in Foster Care
This podcast shares the perspective of a youth formerly in foster care. It provides tips to caseworkers for engaging youth in developing their case plans and identifying supportive adults in their lives. This resource can help caseworkers as they work with youth who are in foster care or preparing to transition to adulthood.
Share with Youth: Being an Engaged and Involved Teen in Foster Care
This webpage provides information to teens in foster care about their permanency options, tools to help them transition to adulthood, and how to find support from other teens who have been in foster care.
Supporting Families Impacted by Incarceration — A Dialogue with Experts
This report, developed by the National Child Abuse and Neglect Technical Assistance and Strategic Dissemination Center, is the outcome of a meeting that convened national child welfare experts on families impacted by incarceration. It features key issues around this topic for practitioners and identifies needed resources and tools to support the workforce and families, along with a practical framework of intervention points from arrest to release.
John H. Chafee Foster Care Program for Successful Transition to Adulthood
The John H. Chafee Foster Care Program for Successful Transition to Adulthood (the Chafee program) provides funding to support youth/ young adults in or formerly in foster care in their transition to adulthood. The program is funded through formula grants awarded to child welfare agencies in States (including the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands) and participating Tribes. Chafee funds are used to assist youth/ young adults in a wide variety of areas designed to support a successful transition to adulthood. Activities and programs include, but are not limited to, help with education, employment, financial management, housing, emotional support and assured connections to caring adults. Specific services and supports are determined by the child welfare agency, vary by State, locality and agency, and are often based on the individual needs of the young person. Many State or local agencies contract with private organizations to deliver services to young people.
Children and Identity Theft
This resource from the Federal Trade Commission offers steps to help parents avoid, recognize, and repair the damage caused by child identity theft.
Frequently Asked Questions about the Children's Online Privacy Protection Rule
Understanding the requirements of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Rule has been simplified by the Federal Trade Commission through this set of frequently asked questions.
Heads Up! A Guide to Online Safety
This blog entry from the Federal Trade Commission illustrates the risks that young people encounter when communicating and socializing online and provides a few key questions for teens to ask themselves before posting to social networks.
Keeping Up with Kids’ Apps
This blog post from the Federal Trade Commission highlights a new infographic, titled “Keeping Up with Kids’ Apps” that can help parents as they make decisions about what apps their children should download.
Mobile Apps for Kids: Current Privacy Disclosures Are Disapointing
This report by the Federal Trade Commission, “Mobile Apps for Kids: Current Privacy Disclosures Are Disappointing,” reveals that mobile app developers and distributors are not providing information around what data is being collected when children use apps, and how this data is shared.
Net Cetera: Chatting with Kids About Being Online
The FTC developed “Net Cetera: Chatting with Kids About Being Online,” a booklet for parents, teachers, and other adults to use when having conversations with young people about online safety. Recent updates to the booklet include tips on using mobile apps and Wi-Fi, ways to recognize text message spam, and changes to the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act.
OnGuard Online
The Federal Trade Commission manages OnGuardOnline.gov, in partnership with other federal agencies. OnGuardOnline.gov is a partner in the Stop Think Connect campaign, led by the Department of Homeland Security, and part of the National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education, led by the National Institute of Standards and Technology. This is an educational website, providing educators, parents, kids, and others with information on online safety.
Resources on Children's Online Privacy
The Children's Online Privacy Protection Rule (COPPA) requires commercial website operators to get parental consent before collecting any personal information of kids under 13.
These Online High Schools Didn’t Make the Grade
FTC has charged companies known as “diploma mills” for selling fake high school diplomas that they promise can be used to apply for college and employment. Users may be dealing with a diploma mill if the company states that they charge a flat fee; can provide a diploma in months, weeks, or days; require little or no coursework; or can offer a degree solely for “work or life experience.”
Academic Achievement Trajectories of Homeless and Highly Mobile Students: Resilience in the Context of Chronic and Acute Risk
As featured by the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness, the University of Minnesota released a study, Academic Achievement Trajectories of Homeless and Highly Mobile Students: Resilience in the Context of Chronic and Acute Risk, which examined academic achievement of students identified as homeless or highly mobile as compared with other students in the federal free meal program, reduced price meals, or neither. This study was partially federally funded by the National Institute of Mental Health and the National Science Foundation.
Framework For Evaluating Impact Of Informal Science Education Projects
Details the National Science Foundation's work to advance the informal science education field as a whole and provides an overview of impact evaluation and a look at some of the common issues,concerns, and opportunities in evaluation practice.
Beyond Looking Both Ways
This article describes a study funded by the National Science Foundation's Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences directorate, which is trying to understand the factors that put children at risk when crossing the street on a bike and on foot. The ultimate goal of the study is to provide information to parents that could help them when discussing safety with young children.
Military Youth on the Move
This site helps military youth cope with a deployment or move.
Action Guide for Emergency Management at Institutions of Higher Education
This guide has been developed to give higher education institutions a useful resource in the field of emergency management.
A Guide to School Vulnerability Assessment Key: Principles for Safe Schools
This guide is a companion piece to the Practical Information on Crisis Planning: A Guide for Schools and Communities (above). It emphasizes a valuable part of emergency management planning—ongoing vulnerability assessment—and is intended to assist schools with the selection and implementation of an effective vulnerability assessment tool.
Archived Webinar: Using Data to Identify Programmatic Interventions
The Department of Education’s Office of Safe and Healthy Students’ Safe and Supportive Schools Technical Assistance Center held a webinar on December 14, 2011, “Using Data to Identify Programmatic Interventions.” It covered the need to use school climate data to identify needs, selecting evidence based programs to address these needs, and implementing these programs effectively within a school or district.
Archived Webinar: School Climate Webinar Series: Enhancing Peer-to-Peer Relationships to Strengthen School Climate
The Safe and Supportive Schools Technical Assistance Center, supported by the Department of Education’s Office of Safe and Healthy Students, delves into the importance of fostering healthy student-to-student relationships in the webinar, “Enhancing Peer to Peer Relationships to Strengthen School Climate.” This resource is meant to help administrators, teachers, support staff and student support personnel in creating a nurturing learning environment.
Compendium of School Discipline State Laws and Regulations
Developed by the National Center on Safe Supportive Learning Environments, which is funded by the Department of Education's Office of Safe and Healthy Students and the Department of Health and Human Services' Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the Compendium of School Discipline State Laws and Regulations provides information on school discipline laws and regulations for each of the 50 states, Washington, DC, and Puerto Rico. Users can search by state or category and can also download the full Compendium in PDF format.